This chapter describes using features for locations and phones, including address formatting, address validation, eLocations Spatial Data Integration, and time zone generation for locations and phones.
This chapter covers the following topics:
In the TCA Registry, a location is a point in geographical space, usually defined by an address. Oracle Trading Community Architecture provides these features for locations:
Address validation: The process of comparing raw or user-entered addresses against a known or authorized data source, to determine if the addresses are recognized and correct according to the authority's database. You can:
Validate addresses in real time as you enter them. See: Real-Time Address Validation.
Validate existing addresses in the TCA Registry in bulk. See: Batch Address Validation.
eLocations Spatial Data Integration: Acquire longitude and latitude information for locations in the Registry. See: eLocations Spatial Data Integration.
Time zones: Generate time zones for locations in the Registry. See: Generate Time Zone for Locations
The standard Flexible Address Formatting feature is also used for entering addresses into TCA. See: Address Formatting.
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Using Oracle Trading Community Architecture
Address formatting determines which address elements are displayed, and in what order, for address entry and update. A format specific to a region, such as a country, is an address style.
For example, the address style for the United States is:
Building, Street, Unit Number City State Zip Code Country
Oracle Trading Community Architecture and other Oracle E-Business Suite applications use the Flexible Address Formatting feature. See: Flexible Addresses, Oracle Receivables Implementation Guide. The Flexible Address Formatting setup determines which address style is used for each country.
Note: Aside from providing the address format, address styles can also determine which address elements are mandatory and provide lists of valid values for specific address fields.
The real-time address validation based on Geography Hierarchy works alongside Flexible Address Formatting validation. For example, the address style provides you a list of valid states for US addresses, if the value set is defined. In addition, real-time address validation also provides valid states as part of address suggestions. See: Real-Time Address Validation.
In the address entry UI, you select a country. Available countries are from the FND_TERRITORIES table.
Address elements for entry are displayed based on the Flexible Address Formatting address style defined for the selected country.
Enter address information.
The address style can provide valid address elements, if defined, for you to choose from. For example, if you select United States as the country, the application can provide a list of valid states, which comes from Flexible Address Formatting setup.
Attempt to save your address.
If mandatory address elements are defined for the address style, then the application checks that they are entered. For example, if the US address style is defined so that State is mandatory, then you can save the address only if you have entered a state.
If real-time address validation is set up, then the address is validated and saved, or not, based on the validation process. See: Address Entry and Real-Time Validation Process.
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Real-time address validation validates addresses during address entry. For Oracle Trading Community Architecture, and other Oracle E-Business Suite applications, this validation is based on the information and setup of Geography Hierarchy. See: Geography Hierarchy Overview, Oracle Trading Community Architecture Administration Guide.
Note: Real-time address validation is performed only for addresses created in the HZ_LOCATIONS table and countries that are set up in Geography Hierarchy.
If Flexible Address Formatting is also set up, then you first use this feature when you enter an address. See: Address Formatting. When you try to save the address, you then go through the real-time address validation process.
In the address entry UI, you select a country. Available countries are from the FND_TERRITORIES table.
If Flexible Address Formatting is set up, then address elements are displayed and possibly validated based on the address style defined for the selected country. See: Address Entry and Formatting Process.
Enter address information and attempt to save your address.
Note: To display an asterisk for mandatory fields in the Address page, you must define these fields as mandatory in FAF and address validation, if both are used.
Address validation automatically completes addresses when you enter enough address elements to uniquely determine other address information. For example, you enter a zip code for a US address, and the application automatically fills in the corresponding city and state, based on Geography Hierarchy data.
If a unique match is not found, then real-time address validation can also provide valid, suggested address elements for you to choose from. For example, if you select United States as the country, and San Francisco as the city, then the application can provide valid state, county, and city combinations, which come from the Geography Hierarchy setup.setup If the HZ: Validate First 5 Digits of US ZIP Code profile option is set to Yes, or you have not specified a value for the profile, and you enter more than five digits for a US ZIP code, then only the first five digits are validated against the Geography repository. If the first five digits are valid according to the HZ_GEOGRAPHIES, then the 5-digit ZIP code is displayed in the list of suggestions in the - State, County, City, and ZIP Code format. If the first five digits of the US ZIP code are valid, then the remaining digits after the fifth digit are stored in the ZIP+4 format.
The address is validated and accordingly saved, or not, based on the geography validation level set up for the country.
Error: Only completely valid addresses can be saved. If there are multiple valid combinations, you can select from the displayed suggestions.
Warning: Invalid addresses can be saved after issuing you a warning, but you must enter all mandatory address elements, as defined in Geography Hierarchy setup. If there are multiple valid combinations, you can select from the displayed suggestions.
Mandatory Fields Only: Invalid addresses can be saved without warning, but you must enter all mandatory address elements, as defined in Geography Hierarchy setup.
No Validation: All addresses can be saved.
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Run the Address Validation program to validate addresses in the TCA Registry in bulk. The program sends data to the address validation black box, which must be integrated with at least one adapter for address validation. For example, if the adapter is integrated with a third party product called Gorman, the adapter would validate the TCA addresses against the Gorman address database. See: Administering Adapters, Oracle Trading Community Architecture Administration Guide.
Each address is validated through the default adapter set up for each country. For example, if the Gorman adapter is the default for Peru, all Peruvian addresses in the Registry are validated against Gorman's standard addresses.
If an address from the TCA Registry differs from the validated address, the TCA address is updated with the validated address only if the TCA address is valid above a specified threshold. Such an update is called an address correction. For example, if you set the Override Threshold parameter at the Municipality Match level, then an address is corrected if at least its city or town is valid.
Note: Aside from the validation threshold, address correction only occurs if the update does not violate other validations, such as tax validation rules.
Your administrator can set up address validation, including determining the timeout limit for communication with third party service providers and custom solutions. The default is 300 seconds. See: Setting Up Batch Address Validation, Oracle Trading Community Architecture Administration Guide.
The Address Validation program has three pairs of parameters, each including a filter operator and the corresponding value, to determine which addresses in the TCA Registry to include in the address validation.
For each parameter pair, you must use both or neither. To include addresses that were never validated, do not use the validation status and date validated parameters.
Specify the operator for filtering addresses to validate, based on the last validation status. For example, you enter <= and select 3 as the validation status code. The program would include only addresses that have validation status 3, 2, 1, or 0 from the last address validation.
Enter the validation status to use with the validation status filter for including only addresses based on their last validation status. The program considers addresses last validated by any adapter, unless you specify one in the Adapter parameter.
Specify the operator for filtering addresses to validate, based on the last validation date. For example, you enter > and 01-JAN-2004 as the validation date. The program would include only addresses that were last validated on January 2, 2004 or later.
Enter the validation date to use with the date validated filter for including only addresses based on their last validation date. The program considers addresses last validated by any adapter, unless you specify one in the Adapter parameter.
Specify the operator for filtering addresses to validate, based on the last update date. For example, you enter < and 01-JAN-2004 as the validation date. The program would include only addresses that were last updated on December 31, 2003 or earlier.
Enter the update date to use with the last update date filter for including only addresses based on their last update date. Updates include user-entered changes, address corrections, or enrichment from a third party data source such as D&B.
Leave this parameter blank to validate addresses in all countries, or enter the country you want to validate.
Enter the adapter that you want to use to validate addresses against. Use this parameter, for example, to validate against a specific source after the source's libraries are updated with new data.
If you use the validation status or date validated parameters, the program further limits the addresses to only those last validated by the specified adapter.
Enter the code for the validation threshold that an address must reach or exceed to be corrected with the valid address. For example, if you select 2, addresses must be validated at least to the street or thoroughfare level to be updated. Addresses with validation status 0, 1, or 2 would be updated.
This table describes the available status codes.
| Status | Meaning | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Valid Address | The highest level of validation. The address has been certified deliverable based on postal authority certifications. |
| 1 | Multiple or Ambiguous Address | Address has been validated to the street level, but there is ambiguity to locate the specific address. |
| 2 | Street or Thoroughfare Match | Address has been validated to the street level, but no further. |
| 3 | Municipality Match | Address has been validated to the city or town level, but no further. |
| 4 | Administrative Subdivision Match | Address has been validated to be within the country's main administrative subdivision, such as province or state, but no further. |
| 5 | Country Match | Address has only been validated to the country level, but no further. |
| 6 | No Match | Address could not be validated in any way. |
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Oracle Trading Community Architecture (TCA) eLocations Spatial Data Integration lets you retrieve spatial information from Oracle eLocations. Oracle eLocations provides mapping, geocoding, and driving directions for the US and supports a range of applications, from mapping, asset management, and transportation applications to wireless location services and location-enabled e-business.
The spatial data that eLocations provides through the TCA integration contains the latitude and longitude for any location within the US. You can acquire and store this information for your addresses in the TCA Registry.
You run the Spatial Information for Locations Batch Update program in eLocations Spatial Data Integration to retrieve spatial data from eLocations into the TCA Registry. See: Spatial Information for Locations Batch Update.
The program starts a PL/SQL script to generate a spatial data request that is sent to eLocations via an HTTP query post. An API parses the response from eLocations and, if the results are successful, updates the HZ_LOCATIONS table with the latitude and longitude for the requested locations.
Your administrator can set up eLocations Spatial Data Integration. See: Setting Up eLocations Spatial Data Integration, Oracle Trading Community Architecture Administration Guide.
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Use the Spatial Information for Locations Batch Update program to acquire latitude and longitude values for locations in the TCA Registry. For addresses that already have spatial data, the program updates the records with the latest information from eLocations.
In the request to eLocations, you can limit the addresses that you want spatial data for by site use, country, and other criteria. You can update all records that satisfy the criteria or specify a number of records, for example, the first 100 records that match the criteria. The location ID orders the addresses, so the first records are usually the older ones.
Use the following parameters to submit the Spatial Information for Locations Batch Update program.
Specify whether you want spatial data for locations that are tied to party addresses or not.
Enter the site use for the locations that you want spatial data for.
Enter the country for the locations that you want spatial data for.
Enter Yes or No to indicate whether you want spatial data for only identifying addresses or all addresses.
Enter Yes if you want spatial data only for locations without any spatial data or with manual updates since the last run of this program. Enter No to update all locations.
Enter ALL if you want spatial information for all records that correspond to the previous parameters or SUBSET for only a subset of records.
Enter the number of records that you want spatial data for if you selected SUBSET in the Update Records For parameter.
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eLocations Spatial Data Integration
Use the Generate Time Zone for Locations program to create or update time zone information for all existing locations in the TCA Registry. The time zone information is based on the country, or for the United States only, the state.
Use the following parameters to submit the Generate Time Zone for Locations program.
Specify whether the program should overwrite existing time zones.
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Use the Generate Time Zone for Phone Numbers program to create or update time zone information for all existing phone numbers in the TCA Registry. The time zone information is based on the phone setup by your administrator. See: Defining Time Zones for Phones, Oracle Trading Community Architecture Administration Guide.
For example, the US phone setup is based on area codes, since the country has multiple time zones. For the 650 or 858 area code, the program would assign the US west coast time zone.
Use the following parameter to submit the Generate Time Zone for Phone Numbers program.
Specify whether the program should overwrite existing time zones.
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